Record-warm water year leaves Draper facing drought, low reservoirs

DRAPER — The 2027 water year opened Oct. 1 on a record low. Last winter's peak snowpack was the lowest measured in Utah, topping out at 8.4 inches on March 9, about half of normal, and reservoir storage began the new year averaging 50 percent full, 9 percent below the usual level for the date, according to the Utah Division of Water Resources 1. The same state update puts 100 percent of Utah in some form of drought and 25 percent in extreme drought 1. About 95 percent of the state's water comes from snowpack 1.

The year that produced those numbers ran from Oct. 1, 2025, through Sept. 30, 2026. Utah averaged 12.47 inches of precipitation over it, the 49th-driest of 131 water years tracked by the National Centers for Environmental Information, which blends mountain and valley data 2. The heat was the larger fact: the statewide average temperature of 53.8 degrees was 2.1 degrees above the previous record, set in the 1934 water year, and all 29 counties broke their own records 2.

Rain did not make up the difference. Mountain precipitation for the year came in at 96 percent of normal, but the snowpack it fed was barely over 50 percent, according to Jordan Clayton, a hydrologist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service and director of the Utah Snow Survey 2. Jon Meyer, assistant state climatologist at the Utah Climate Center at Utah State University, has described the state's system as "built for delayed release" from snow: rain runs off faster than soil absorbs it, while snowpack is released over a longer period at the end of the season 2.

The storage curve followed. Reservoirs peaked at 71 percent of capacity in May, four percentage points lower and a full month earlier than normal, according to state water data 2. Drought coverage peaked at 95 percent of the state in severe or worse conditions by mid-July, up from 43 percent at the start of the calendar year 2. Salt Lake County collected 22.11 inches during the water year, 86 percent of normal and its 34th-driest year since 1895 2.

Draper's supplier responded in the spring. The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District issued a Level 2 "Severe" notice covering its 17 member agencies and about 800,000 residents, calling for a 10 percent reduction in water use and applying surcharges where volumes exceed 110 percent and 120 percent of allocated amounts 3. Jacob Young, the district's general manager and CEO, said at the time that 80 percent of summer water use is outdoors 3.

Draper reported month by month against that target: a 9 percent reduction in May and 12 percent in June, in the city's own accounting posted Aug. 7 4. Young told the Draper City Council at its Aug. 18 meeting that the city had reached an 11 percent reduction for the year, and said district conservation efforts had freed 21,000 acre-feet of water per year for the Great Salt Lake, the Draper Herald reported 5. The city's 2024 use stood at 165 gallons per capita per day against a conservation target of 183, according to the Herald's account of the city's water conservation plan 5.

The city's conservation page lists the incentives available to residents: up to $3 per square foot of lawn replaced with water-efficient landscaping, $1 per square foot for switching to drip irrigation, $50 per tree, up to $100 for a WaterSense smart controller and up to $150 for a WaterSense toilet, subject to funding 4. City code limits commercial watering to the hours of 6 p.m. to 10 a.m.; there are no restricted hours for residential watering 4.

What happens next turns on the coming winter. The 2027 water year opened with the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel raising mountain soil moisture, but Clayton said the snowpack will decide whether conditions improve. "We don't want to hang our hat on having an above-normal winter just yet, but we're certainly hoping for that," he told KSL 2.